


Sacrifice

by welcometothefangirlparade



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Based off merlin, F/M, Zutara, and stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-06
Updated: 2017-07-06
Packaged: 2018-11-28 08:12:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11413800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/welcometothefangirlparade/pseuds/welcometothefangirlparade
Summary: An alternate version of Zuko and Katara's battle against Azula.*sort of based off merlin*





	Sacrifice

**Author's Note:**

> Listening to "You'll Be in my Heart" while reading is a suggestion if you want ultimate feels.
> 
> This is Zutara, not the other ship. I imagine that they definitely had some kind of feelings for each other, and that their development was really set up for a romance, but we didn't get that.

"No lightning today?" Zuko taunted his sister. "What's the matter? Afraid I'll redirect it?"

Katara couldn't help but bring herself to stand behind him, in case he needed help. Taunting Azula was a risk, that much the waterbender knew. She felt it was her duty to be ready to jump in a fight.

Azula glared daggers towards her brother, before a light smirk appeared on her face. "Oh, I'll show you lightning!" She spat, waving her finger tips in an erratic motion, before blue light surrounded the princess.

Zuko took his stance, and Katara watched helplessly from behind, wishing she could do something else. Wishing she could run up and fight next to him.

Azula teased the two with her lightning. She moved, making it almost impossible for anyone to judge when she'd strike. She stood still for a moment, staring down Zuko, until her eyes made contact with Katara's.

She stood, unable to will her legs to move, paralyzed with fear. The blue lightning flickered before her eyes, and for a moment she thought that it was over. There was no way should could escape, or even redirect the lightning without getting herself killed in the process. She wasn't a firebender.

But the fear for her life was quickly overruled when she heard a familiar voice scream a strangled "no!", before Zuko's body landed between her and the lightning. He was frozen in air for what seemed like ages, before he collapsed to the ground, part of the lightning sent straight into the sky, and the remainder sending twitches through the Fire Nation Prince's body.

It took Katara a moment to get over her initial shock. She overcame her paralysis and felt her heart pound loudly in her ears.

"Zuko!" She shouted, breaking into a sprint towards the boy who lay on the ground, surrounded by fire. He struggled to pull himself to his knees, but his strength was gone. She opened her water skin, hoping to get to him in time to heal him.

She should have know Azula wouldn't let them off the hook so easily.

Just as the water covered her outstretched hand, a bolt of lightning struck the ground before her.

Katara followed the strike up to the rooftop, where the Fire Nation princess stood, laughing maniacally.

"I'd really rather our family physician look after little Zuzu if you don't mind," she said, the faintest hint of satisfaction lacing her voice. Lightning at her fingertips, the girl aimed at Katara, and she deflected the electricity with a stream of water.

Katara felt her heart beat faster, as she dove for cover behind a pillar. Blue flames engulfed the arena, and flew past her face. 

"Zuzu, you don't look so good!" Azula mocked, as her older brother lay helplessly on the ground. Katara closed her eyes, trying to focus. Before she could do anything, Azula had let another erratic shock of lightning strike the pillar she'd been hiding behind, and she sprinted for safety.

It had only been seconds after, when Katara bent the water beside her to her will, letting to crash onto the rooftop that Azula stood atop. To her surprise, Azula was gone. The water doused the building, and Katara scanned the premise, confusion sweeping across her face.

Zuko, she thought. She needed to get to him. But before she could, Azula flew in before her on motors of fire. Katara's eyes flickered momentarily on Zuko's still form, but she pushed her thoughts out of her head before bending the fountain water to create a wave of ice.

As Fire made contact with ice, it sent Katara flying onto metal. She breathed heavily, as she stared at the drainage system beneath her. An idea began to form in her head. Glancing up, Katara's eyes landed on metal chains, keeping some sort of door closed. She smiled.

"There you are you filthy peasant!" The familiar, crazed voice, snarled.

The Fire Nation Princess followed Katara onto drain. Katara stood still, allowing Azula to get closer. She wasn't afraid. The closer Azula came, the more Katara felt confident in her plan.

As she reached out to strike the waterbender down, Katara shifted, bending the water out of the drain, and froze it as soon as it had covered them entirely. Azula looked at her in horror, as she learned her could move at all.

Patiently, Katara let out a breath through her nose, liquefying the ice around her limbs, and began to tie down her opponent. As she secured the chains around Azula's wrists and around the metal drain, she pushed the water back down.

Coughing, she tightened the chains and ran to the injured boy's side.

He let out a weak groan, but nothing more escaped his lips.

Katara frantically drew water from her water skin, and let her hands hover over the lightning wound. Zuko's face contorted in pain, but Katara felt nothing. No healing, no mending.

"It's too late," he whispered hoarsely.

She refused to believe him. "You are not dying on me, understand?"

"Go find Aang," he tried again, his voice barely audible. He struggled to form the words, but managed to get them out. "I'll be okay here. Just please, go."

"No!" She said stubbornly, refusing to take her hands off his wound. "I'm not leaving you here to die. I will never turn my back on people who need me."

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm sorry for everything, all the pain I've caused." He took in a shaking breath before continuing. "I'm so sorry."

His pulse was weak. She didn't have to be a healer to know that. He was dying. And she couldn't ignore that. She hesitantly removed her hands from his burned chest, as a tear slipped down her cheek. "You don't have to be sorry," she murmured. "I'm the reason why this happened to you."

Zuko shook his head painfully. "All I ever did was hurt people."

"That's not true," she choked out, fighting back the tears that threatened to soak her face. "You saved us. You saved me." She swallowed. "You saved me in every way a person could be saved."

"I did so much evil," he continued, squeezing his eyes shut. "I hurt so many people. I made so many wrong choices."

"You're not evil, Zuko," she grimaced. "You made mistakes, but so has everyone else. You found your way and made things right again."

"I was a monster," he whispered, ignoring her pleas of protest.

"You were a hero."

"I'm dying," he breathed, plaintively, changing the subject. "Aren't I."

She ignored him. "Come on, Zuko," she whispered. "You gotta stay with me, okay?"

"I am though," he pressed on weakly. "Don't lie to me, Katara."

Katara bit her bottom lip in attempt to keep herself from completely breaking down. Ever so slightly, she allowed herself to give one nod.

"We have to get you back to Aang and the others," she struggled to get him into the sitting position. "Maybe we can find someone who can heal you, or maybe-"

"Just—hold me," he interrupted. "Please."

She obeyed, and held his head against her shoulder, with his body across her lap. His golden eyes stared up at her, the light that she'd seen in his eyes reduced to a dull yellow.

"There's something I want to say," he muttered, struggling to stay conscious. "Something I've never said before." His voice began to trail off.

Her eyes pleaded for him to stay awake, but she couldn't bring herself to say the words.

"I love you," he finished. He stared at her, before he finally gave in, and his head lolled to the side, before she could even say it back.

"Zuko," she whispered, shaking him slightly. She hadn't realized she'd been crying until she felt the tears drop onto her shaking hands.

She checked his pulse, hoping to find any signs of a heart beat. Any signs of life, but instead she was met with silence, and stillness.

Katara found herself screaming his name, crying out for anyone to hear her.

Eventually she gave into the silence, and let her tears soak his clothing.

\---------------

Toph let the earth guide her towards the Fire Nation Palace. She remembered Katara telling the rest of them if her and Zuko didn't make it to the rendezvous point in time, to look for them at the palace. Sokka, Suki, and Aang followed closely behind her.

As she neared the house of royalty, Toph could sense something wrong. She stopped.

"Toph!" Sokka yellows, as he crashed into her after her abrupt pause. "Can't you watch where you're going!"

Normally Toph would retort something back, or wave her hand in front of her face to indicate she was blind, but today something was different.

"Something's wrong," she said. "Zuko and Katara went together to fight Azula, right?"

"Yeah," Aang confirmed.

"What does that have to do with anything," Sokka inquired.

"I only feel two heartbeats."

"You don't think they, you know, killed her, so you?" Suki asked, tentatively.

"I hope-"

Aang was cut off by a stream of blue fire shot at the sky.

"No," Sokka whispered. "Blue Fire. Only Azula could..."

Toph felt her stomach drop. If it wasn't Azula's heart that had stopped, then it was someone else's.

"Katara!" Aang's voice filled the air, at the same time that Sokka had cried, "My sister!"

They wasted no time in running out to the open courtyard where to fight had taken place.

There she sat. The girl dressed in blue, cradling the Fire Nation Prince's limp body in her arms, tears streaming down her face.

"Hey, Sugarqueen," Toph said.

She could feel Katara shift, as her head snapped towards the sound of the earthbender's voice.

"Katara-"

"He's dead," she whispered. "He sacrificed himself for me. He jumped in front of her lightning, and I never even got to say thank you. I never-"

Sokka wrapped his arms around his little sister, pulling her into a tight hug. She cried into his shoulder.

"It was all my fault."

No one said anything. No one knew _what_ to say.

She looked down at the prince. "I loved him," she murmured, "and I never told him. I never said it back."

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> It hurt me to write this, honestly. But I really wonder how things would have been different had Zuko not survived.
> 
> I remember Iroh saying that if you redirect lightning the wrong way, it could kill you. If you watch his stance against his father, he was centered, and he let it flow through his arm, into her stomach and out the other arm. When in Azula's battle, he was in mid air, and had his arms in front of his chest as a last effort to protect himself and his heart. He managed to redirect some of it, but had Katara not been there he'd have died.
> 
> I think things would have turned out very differently if she couldn't save him. 
> 
> Anyway. I'm so sorry for any pain I've caused you, I really am. Thinking of zuko actually dying hurts, because he's one of my favorite characters and after everything he went through to find himself, it would have been devastating to see him go like that.


End file.
